Hebrew Word Study – Face – Panah – Pei Nu Hei 

Exodus 33:11: “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.”

Exodus 33:22: “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”

This sounds very contradictory.  In Exodus 33:11 we learn that Moses spoke with God face to face but just eleven verses later God tells Moses he cannot see His face and live.  Yet, if just got done speaking face to face with God he should, by all rights be dead. 

Commentators explain that God has no face to begin with so this is just a metaphoric statement and verse eleven is speaking of how God communicated to Moses and verse twenty-two speaks of a relationship, a drawing much closer to God that he experienced on the mountain.  I would tend to agree with this but it does need to be explained from different presuppositions.

First, the expression of face to face is communication.  Her face is panim the plural form of the root panah. In verse twenty two this face is used in terms of relationship or closeness to God and is in the singular root form panah.  The word panah means one’s presence or the focus of your attention.  When God spoke with Moses face to face we find this as an idiomatic of two people whose attention is totally focused on each other which is why it is plural. Like two lovers sitting on a park bench sharing their hearts with each other as the world just passes by them, they are totally unaware of anything around them except each other. 

This is an excellent picture of God’s relationship with us. God doesn’t live in time and space.  He is outside of time and space and we have occasions when God invites us to step out of our realm and into His but in a sort of tzim tzum.  Tzim tzum means to be present in one’s absence. Wrap that around your brain.  It is sort of existing in a bubble set between two dimensions.  To be on earth in the natural world and in the spirit at the same time.

I recall reading a story about a soldier going through basic training in the old Soviet Union which at the time persecuted Christians.  This soldier was a Christian and suffered terribly at the hands of his military instructor who would beat him and abuse him trying to get him to denounce his Lord.  At the height of this abuse, he lay in his bunk one night after lights were out and poured his heart out to God and wept before God saying how he could not take it anymore. Suddenly, he found himself in a place of extreme peace and comfort feeling the Divine presence and communicating with Him as God communicated back.  Then after a wonderful time of experiencing this strange presence of God, he found himself back in his barracks. When he awoke the next morning he thanked God for the wonderful dream. Only he found himself surrounded by his fellow recruits who were angry with him. “Why did you leave the barracks after lights were out?  You could be punished for desertion and we would all be punished with you. How dare you put all of us at risk like that.”  The Christian soldier pleaded with his fellow soldiers that he did not leave the barracks but did have a wonderful dream. Only now he begin to realize it wasn’t a dream, God actually took him physically somewhere that was neither in this world or the world to come but a place where he could be alone with His God to receive comfort. Like Moses, he spoke face-to-face with God. 

Yet, within the same chapter where Moses spoke face to face with God, we find he wanted something more from God. 

Note in Exodus 33:18: “And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” Moses did not ask to see God’s panah, His presence, but he just wanted to see His glory.  Pray tell, what did he experience on the mountain?  Do you mean there was more?  Moses knew there was more, he knew God was holding back from him and he longed for more of God.  As a young couple falling in love enjoy each other’s presence together. Soon the young man takes the hand of his beloved and he longs for even a closer experience with the one he loves, he wants to feel her touch.  They soon long for something more intimate and they exchange a kiss. As the old saying goes one thing leads to another. They begin longing to be as close as they humanly can be.  So too with our relationship with God and Moses’ relationship with God. The closer he came to God the closer he longed to be with God.  The danger of drawing closer, like in the relationship of two lovers, is that if they wish to not consummate their relationship until marriage, they have to exercise self-control. Like Joseph in Genesis 39:10, he had to flee from Potipher’s wife who tried to seduce him. Joseph was no dummy, he knew if he hung around, he would end up doing something he would later regret. So, he fled.  The word for fled is nus which is to take flight like a bird.  If you live in a big city like I do, you probably experienced nus among the pigeons. They will gather around you, especially if you have an Egg McMuffin to offer.  They will even walk up almost next to you but the moment you reach out to touch them or pet them, they just calmly step aside, playing hard to get.  If you get too persistent, they will take flight.  You should be thankful because many have lost a finger or suffered pain when they actually managed to get close enough to the little bugger. As cute as they are they will take a peck at you.  That is the danger of getting too close to God as Moses longed to do.  If you get to close to God there is no turning back, your spirit will leave your body to be joined with its Creator.

Moses wanted to see God’s glory but God said he could not see his pani in his presence.  Are these not two different things?  God uses four words to describe His glory, what Moses wanted to see in verse 19: “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” He tells Moses that His goodness will pass before him, that is his tov. This would be God’s tuning fork, His vibrations from which all creation, not corrupted by sin, is in harmony with him. Moses’s fleshly body was corrupt and not in harmony with God and that fleshly corrupted body would cease to live if it came in contact with this tov.  Also embodied in God’s glory or shakach is His grace or His chanan. Chanan is a longing and desire. Chanan is a word that in its Semitic root is used for a family that welcomes a stranger into its family circle only after passing through a blood ritual. Sort of \like the old Western stories we used to see when a cowboy and an Indian became blood brothers. They each cut their wrist and place their wrist together letting their blood flow between each other. Once this ritual is performed the two become “blood brothers” and all the benefits and favors of being a blood member of the family are granted to this outsider.  Grace simply means Divine favor but it is Divine favor granted because of a blood sacrifice.  Thirdly God’s shakach or glory includes His mercy. In Hebrew that is the word racham, that Divine, heavenly love that one can only experience when separated from one’s corruptible physical body.  Fourthly, God tells Moses he cannot see His face and live.  The word face is pani which is often a reference to one’s presence. It is not that God’s face is so horrible that a person dies of fright.  It is that His presence is so wonderful, so filled with His tov, harmonious vibrations, His chanan favor granted only to a member of a family joined by blood and his racham heavenly love that Moses’s spirit could not remain in its physical body because it would just naturally be joined with God. In short, what God told Moses is: “What you are requesting is my Divine Kiss.  Although you and I long for that kiss, it cannot be until your mission on earth is finished.  That Divine Kiss means I am taking possession of your spirit and to do that your spirit must leave your fleshly body. Your spirit cannot dwell in Me and in a sinful corrupt body at the same time.

Hi there! Thank you for reading this Daily Word Study. Can I ask a favor? Share this Daily Word Study with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking one of the icons below.

Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!